Blog 24: The Archer’s Spotlight

*THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM EPISODES 1-5 OF HAWKEYE*

Disney has been having a decent track record when it comes to MCU content, with minimal complaints from me (unless you wanna talk about how Doctor Strange was written out of the original ending to WandaVision), so I had high hopes when I first learned about the new Hawkeye show, and so far I’m impressed by the show. I like how the show is adapting certain things from the Hawkeye 2012-2015 comic run (which is really entertaining, you should give it a read) while still putting their unique Disney spin on it. There are a lot of things I have to say about this show, so let’s get down to it.

Episode 1-2

The first two episodes served as an introduction to Kate Bishop, an extraordinary archer/huge Hawkeye fan, and showed us a happy Clint spending time with his kids, while also dealing with PTSD from the events of Avengers Endgame. Not only are we introduced to Kate, we are also introduced to her mother, Elenor, and stepdad, Jack Duquesne (who is the villain “Swordsman” in the comics). The episode starts off pretty slow with the introductions until we reach the end with Kate at a party for her mom’s security company, which so happens to be a front for a secret auction that Jack and his father, Armond, attend. Kate sneaks into the auction room due to her uneasiness for Jack and Armond, and she discovers that the stuff being auctioned are off are items from the destroyed Avengers Compound, and two notable items were Clint’s Ronin gear. As the auction continues, a group of people calling themselves “The Tracksuit Mafia” break into the auction to steal a Rolex watch that was also found at the compound. Kate starts to freak out, and in a panic she dons the Ronin suit, and fights her way out of the building. When she finally gets to safety, she hatches a plan to break into Armond’s house to find evidence if he’s a danger to herself and her mom, but she ends up finding him dead inside his own home.

During all this chaos, the news outlets get wind that the Ronin is in New York, and unfortunately Clint finds out as well. His original plan was to go home with his kids for Christmas, but now he has to stay in New York to clean up Ronin’s mess. He sends his kids home, and he quickly tracks down Ronin, who was being chased down by the Tracksuits. When Clint finds out that Ronin is Kate, he gets annoyed that some kid is getting herself into trouble. He takes the suit from her, and he tries to formulate a plan to cover Ronin’s tracks. Kate tells Clint that she got the suit from an auction full of items from the Avengers Compound, and she tells him that the Tracksuits stole a Rolex Watch from the auction. With this new intel, Clint goes to confront the tracksuits by himself, but Kate interferes with his plan.

These first two episodes were pretty enjoyable, but I can understand why some people were crticizing this series for showing more Kate than Clint. People want a show about Clint Barton, and they feel that this Kate Bishop is stealing his spotlight, but I don’t see it that way. When I first found out that Kate was going to be character in the show, I felt that this show was going to have a “passing of the tourch” scenario because I remember that Clint is supposed to be retired. If Kate can prove herself to be a capable hero, then maybe Clint will finally walk away from the hero gig and become a family man.

Episode 3

Episode 3 was the introduction to Maya Lopez, who in comics was the first Ronin (Clint was the second), but here she’s the boss of the Tracksuits. Most fans would call Maya a “Reverse Daredevil” since Daredevil is a blind crimefighter, whereas Maya is a deaf fighter. I like how the show is staying true to her deafness being her greatest strength, and I found it interesting that the MCU Maya has a prosthetic leg, which differs from her comic book counterpart. I do know that the actor playing Maya is deaf and an amputee in real life, and I think her take on Maya is pretty well done.

We get flashbacks from Maya’s life, and we see that her hatred towards the Ronin is because Ronin murdered her father during his war with the Tracksuits. Clint and Kate eventually escape from the Tracksuits, and then they discuss what to do next. Kate brings up that Armond’s muder could be connected to the Tracksuit robbery at the auction, and she believes that Jack Duquesne is the killer. They both break into Kate’s house so Kate can use her mom’s security software to dig up some dirt on Jack, but their investigation is cut short when Jack and Elenor arrive home.

I like how the MCU is expanding the criminal underworld, especially with the inclusion of the Tracksuits, who I believe are associated with Kingpin. I also find it a little funny that all this crime is happening in New York, and I sit there wondering “Where the hell is Spider-Man?!” This was a good episode, but things get even crazier.

Episode 4

Episode 4 had a magnificent ending that I didn’t expect to see so soon. The episode started with Elenor asking Clint why he is bringing Kate along on his mission, and Clint explains that she was tangled up in some messy shit and he needed to help her, but ever since then he can’t get rid of her. Clint leaves the Bishop house after Elenor begs for Clint to leave Kate out of his mission, to which Clint agrees. When Clint arrives at his safe house to rest up, he calls his wife to see if she can run a background check on Jack Duquesne because he believes what Kate said about him being involved with the Tracksuits.

Kate shows up at Clint’s safehouse later that day with some Christmas cheer because she feels bad that Clint is missing out on the holidays because of her mess. We see some nice mentor and apprentice bonding between Clint and Kate, and Clint tells Kate the story of how he first met Natasha and how he misses her. Kate then asks if Clint lost his family during the Blip, and then she figured out that Clint is the Ronin, to which he confessed and tried to justify his actions as Ronin. Clint also tells her that her suspicions about Jack were valid since he’s a CEO of a company that launders money for the Tracksuits. They leave the safe house later that night because Clint found the location of the Rolex watch the Tracksuits stole, and Kate breaks into the apartment where the watch is in, which so happens to be Maya’s apartment. Maya gets the jump on Kate, while Clint gets attacked by a masked assilant. Eventually everyone is fighting on the same rooftop, and Maya looks confused by this masked fighter, so she makes a run for it. The assailant takes off her mask to reveal that she is Yelena, Natasha’s sister from Black Widow, and she makes a swift getaway. Clint tells Kate that this is too dangerous since he believes someone hired a Black Widow assassin to kill him, and he orders her to go home.

Seeing Yelena again was freaking awesome, and we all knew that this was going to happen eventually since the second end credits scene in Black Widow showed that Yelena was told by Madame Hydra that Clint was responsible for Natsha’s death. Bringing Yelena into the show throws a ripple into everything because now Maya’s vendetta is going to get her involved in something much bigger than herself, and Clint now has to deal with Nat’s angry sister. Even in his own show, Hawkeye can’t seem to catch a break.

Episode 5

What an amazing episode!!! The beginning alone was breathtaking with the reveal that Yelena was blipped! This brings a whole new prespective to her aggression towards Clint because she didn’t even know that she missed five years and that her sister died, and finding all that out at once is a lot for a person to process. There is also an interesting conversation between Yelena and Kate that really highlights how much Yelena has grown as a person. She’s witty, charismatic, and surprisingly very level-headed when you compare how closed-off and angry she was during the Black Widow movie. Yelena openily tells Kate why she wants to kill Clint and she won’t hesitate to take her down if she gets in her way, but Kate counters by asking who hired her to kill Clint. Yelena dismisses that question and leaves Kate.

Meanwhile Clint decides to put an end to his feud with Maya and her Tracksuits by setting up a meeting, which of course Maya sets it up like a trap, then her and Ronin duke it out. Clint gets the upperhand in the fight, reveals his identity to Maya, and he threatens her to stay away from him and his family or else his face is the last thing she sees. She asks why he killed her father, and he told her that he was tipped off my an informant on the location of the Tracksuits boss, Maya’s father, and his informant was one of the Tracksuits. Maya then catches Clint off guard, and when she is about to kill him, Kate saves Clint(she was tracking his phone). Maya runs off, and Kate and Clint get back to the safehouse. Maya is upset that she failed to kill Ronin, but now she’s suspicious of who betrayed her father.

Kate tells Clint that the Black Widow assassin who is trying to kill him is Nat’s sister, and responds by saying Yelena (it’s cool that Clint already knew of Yelena’s existence). While the two of them are back at their safehouse, Yelena is tailing Elenor Bishop for an unknown reason. Kate then gets a text message from Yelena telling her that Elenor was the one who put a hit on Clint, and she sends her a picture of Elenor meeting with someone who Clint knows way too well.

THE KINGPIN!!!!

This episode marked the return of not just any Kingpin, but the Kingpin from the Daredevil Netflix series!!! I was in awe when I saw him in that photo, even though I suspected his return from the very beginning. Wilson Fisk is the kind of villain we need in the MCU since he’s essentially the biggest boss in the criminal underworld, and he can pose as a huge problem in both the MCU movies and tv shows. He basically hates every Marvel superhero, especially Spider-Man and Daredevil. His appearance can also pave way for the return of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil to the MCU, as well as the other Netflix heroes!

This show has been a lot of fun to watch, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the finale coming out this week, and I’ll be here to review it. Great job on this show Marvel, you are slowly redeeming yourself. Now if I can only see the new Spider-Man movie, that would be a real treat!

Well that’s all I have for you today. This is your friendly neighborhood Poolguy signing off, and wishing you all a happy holidays.